Improving the Lives of all Americans: U.S. Forest Service Urban Field Stations

We are living in the "urban century," the first time in human history when the majority of the world’s population is living in cities and urban areas. When the Forest Service was established over 100 years ago to protect forests and restore watersheds, 80 percent of U.S. residents lived in rural areas. Now, 83 percent of the U.S. population lives in urban areas. The mission statement of the Forest Service remains unchanged, but as demographic shifts occur, the Forest Service understands that "caring for the land and serving the people" must also occur where the majority of those people live. Just as the Forest Service restored the degraded post-logging landscapes and watersheds of a century ago, so it also seeks to enable restoration and stewardship of green spaces and waterways in urban areas.